Every southerner should be mapmaking during the redistricting process because our representation for the next ten years is on the table. We shouldn’t leave it to the state legislators alone because they work for us. There should be a smart phone app for redistricting.
Because I am watching The Borgias on Showtime, ice-cold Niccolo Machiavelli, Pope Alexander VI and Amerigo Vespucci come to mind when think about our mapmaking. I read in Machiavelli’s The Prince that one should kiss his enemy on the left cheek then the right cheek—no wondering why Tupac liked his writings. Pope Alexander VI (Rodrigo Borgia) stopped at nothing to get the territorial arrangements he wanted and so should we.
How could Christopher Columbus “discover” a land with millions of inhabitants? Columbus didn’t know where he was or what he had but Vespucci came back from current South America and reported to the d’Medici family that the land was larger than anticipated and not the Asia described by Ptolemy or Marco Polo. It must be a New World or new continent. In 1507, mapmaker Martin Waldseemuller produced a world map and named the new continent America after Vespucci’s first name.
It’s my turn to produce a congressional district of Georgia (actually, software programs for this purpose are online.)
It’s my turn to produce a congressional district of Georgia (actually, software programs for this purpose are online.)
My map would feature:
- Going back to the 1992 map for the second congressional district (my area) with parts of Bibb County joining Albany and Columbus again. The Republicans in the 8th District clearly don’t want that Macon concentration of Democrat voters and we would take then gladly.
- Thomas, Brooks and maybe the rest of Lowndes County should be put into the 1st congressional district because they hate being in a moderate district. Congressional candidate Mike Keown ran strong last year and he would be the heir apparent when Jack Kingston leaves for bigger things or returns to lovely costal Georgia. Yes, Keown is congressional material but not in a swing district.
- Because I want to see a congressional district that can elect an African American GOPer member of congress, I would make the new 14th District a collection of moderate Democrats that give headaches to current GOP members but just enough Republicans to win the seat—Hall, Clarke, etc. I want a brother or sister who would say once and for all, “stick to the issues and enough with the nonsense.” Blacks would vote a candidate like that.
Of course, the U.S. Justice Department must review the congressional maps and I am hearing that all of Chatham County might go from the 1st District into the 12th District in an effort to improve the chances for a GOPer the 12th. All of this is wild speculations but every Georgian should have at it. If we have learned anything from the actions of the Tea Party Movement, it would be that elected officials work for us and we have a say.
Project Logic Ga 
Thomas and Brooks counties aren’t the only counties in the 2nd CD that “hate being in a moderate district” as you describe. In fact the majority of the counties in the 2nd CD don’t want their current representative because they don’t even think he is “moderate” anymore. Brooks and other counties like it (Peach, Sumter, etc.) all have voted for Bishop in the past but didn’t this year even though those counties voted for Democrats in the statewide races. You are right, Keown is congressional material in this district or any other. I don’t see 2nd CD as a swing district. Other than Columbus, the district is overwhelmingly republican now.
“if every voter knew what every elected official knows, there would be no such thing as voter apathy.”
Get involved and ask questions. He who pays the piper calls the tune.